Campaign tactics for the Seleucids

[Quirinus]

Thanks . What difficulty level do you guys usually play on?

I play at M/M, normally, so admittedly what I've suggested might not work at all at a higher difficulty setting.

[Spartan198]

Egypt was always my primary threat as the Seleucids. Pontus,Armenia,and Parthia commonly held long alliances with me until Egypt fell.
Mercenary and defensive armies (made up of low-level units such as Levy Pikemen and Greek Cavalry) were always incredibly useful in the beginning,for me.

[RLucid]

I play at M/M, normally, so admittedly what I've suggested might not work at all at a higher difficulty setting.

Is that difficutly choice a Seleucid faction thing or general policy?

May be, some factions have better play on harder settings and others medium.

[Quirinus]

I always play on M/M. The Seleucid campaign's difficulty should be because the Seleucid Empire was attacked on all sides by a myriad of enemies, not because I am constantly fighting three full Egyptian stacks with my half-stack.

IMO.

[Omanes Alexandrapolites]

Once thing that's key to Seleucid success is rapid building of infrastructure to gain the ability to train higher quality troops. Levy Pikemen and Militia Hoplites are not going to take an empire very far so it's critical to get as many cities as possible up to a standard able to train the hardier standard Pikemen.

[Quintus.JC]

Once thing that's key to Seleucid success is rapid building of infrastructure to gain the ability to train higher quality troops. Levy Pikemen and Militia Hoplites are not going to take an empire very far so it's critical to get as many cities as possible up to a standard able to train the hardier standard Pikemen.

I prefer training elephants rather than phalanx pikemen early on as the Seleucids. At the start only Antioch have the population to train elephants or Phalanx pikemen, I focused on elephants and left Hatra and Damascus to train militia hoplites in masses, this might not helped the population growth but it did gave me massive armies to deal with Egypt. Militia Hoplite as core units with elephants as key units to rout these naughty Egyptians.

[Praetor Rick]

Once thing that's key to Seleucid success is rapid building of infrastructure to gain the ability to train higher quality troops. Levy Pikemen and Militia Hoplites are not going to take an empire very far so it's critical to get as many cities as possible up to a standard able to train the hardier standard Pikemen.

Eh, give Archimedes a lever and a place to stand and he'll rule the world. Give me a Militia Hoplite and a Militia Cavalry, and I can at least conquer it. Note: I didn't come up with that one, but I don't remember who did, it was probably somewhere in the RTW guides forum under Seleucids or possibly Greek Cities.

Depending on how obsessively you practice your Alexandrian tactics, you can indeed build an empire on tier MilHops and MilCav, without much trouble.

That said, Silver Shield Pikemen, Cataphracts, and War Elephants make it a lot more fun.

[Lord_Megahertz]

WOW!!!!!!!!!!! That's really helpful, thanks a lot!

[Guyus Germanicus]

Eh, give Archimedes a lever and a place to stand and he'll rule the world. Give me a Militia Hoplite and a Militia Cavalry, and I can at least conquer it. Note: I didn't come up with that one, but I don't remember who did, it was probably somewhere in the RTW guides forum under Seleucids or possibly Greek Cities.

Depending on how obsessively you practice your Alexandrian tactics, you can indeed build an empire on tier MilHops and MilCav, without much trouble.

That said, Silver Shield Pikemen, Cataphracts, and War Elephants make it a lot more fun.

I have to admit, Praetor Rick, that I find that in my war with the Egyptians I can usually get my militia hoplites several experience chevrons. Once Antioch is advanced enough with the Hephaestus temples, you can send them to Antioch for a silver shields & swords weapons upgrade. It's amazing how formidable they become. AND . . . you have no trouble reinforcing them after losses in combat because every city has a basic barracks. I do get a kick out of using basic militia hoplites that way.

I do remember one game recently where I had some significant profits coming in and I bribed away the Parthians cataphracts into my own Seleu army. That certainly ended the Parthian threat in short order.

As the Greeks, I have used bribery to buy off Crete. You can end up getting two two chevron Cretan archers with two more available as mercenary recruitment. But I don't think that little trick works with the Seleucids. I've tried it with the Roman factions and I don't get the foursome Cretean archer grab either.